Cabinet rejects French 'cease fire' proposal
Israel's security cabinet has finally done the right thing and rejected a 48-hour 'cease fire' proposal made by the French government. "We didn't initiate the Gaza operation in order to end it while Israeli towns are still under fire, as they were before the operation," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said deliberations that lasted the better part of the day. "Israel has shown restraint for years; she gave the truce a chance; we told ourselves 'let's try it,' but Hamas violated the truce."In the meantime, Hamas has continued to pound southern Israel with rocket fire all day. The ground offensive may only be a matter of time.
The prime minister added, however, that Israel may reconsider the French proposal, but "only if the conditions are ripe. For now, we aren't at that point."
Earlier, Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said that "Giving Hamas a respite just to regroup, rearm is a mistake. The pressure on the Hamas military machine must continue."
...
The idea for a 48-hour suspension was first raised by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in a phone call with Barak on Monday. Barak initially rejected the offer, but in a second conversation on Tuesday told Kouchner that he would reconsider and raise it in talks with Olmert and Livni.
In May, Kouchner admitted that he had been in contact with Hamas for 'months' in violation of an international boycott against the terror group. So we know that the entire idea of a 'ceasefire' comes from a terror apologist. Fortunately, for once, the government did the right thing.
UPDATE 5:05 PM
It ain't over 'til it's over.
Israel Radio just reported that the French government responded to the cabinet's rejection of the 'cease fire' by saying that President Nicolas Sarcozy would discuss it with foreign minister Tzipi Livni tomorrow and that Sarcozy and Kouchner would visit here next week. Just what we (didn't) need.
Better keep my French army knife handy.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:33 PM
3 Comments:
Carl,
They will have to continue to do the right thing. According to the news agency TT a commission consisting of Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, Austrian FM Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Swedish FM Carl Bildt will travel to Israel next week to try to negotiate a cease-fire.
The EU will try and try again to use its marshmallow power
And I hope none of us has forgotten this little item:
Kouchner le buffon
Israel's appeasers would love to call the war off if Hamas would only give them a "fig leaf." Hamas is not interested at the moment, in giving Israel's leftists and moonbats political cover for a self-inflicted defeat. This genuinely evil proposal probably may well be back in the New Year. Stay tuned.
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